A Wraith Is Just A Wraith?
by Todd's Pet
Summary: This is a story about Greg, The Defiant One, who I think is gorgeous and deserves a story of his own - in which he gets off that planet and back to a hive, naturally - but not before getting back in touch with his softer side!


A Wraith Is Just A Wraith…?

Stephie regains consciousness painfully slowly, like wading through treacle. When she finally unglues her eyelids the bright light dazzles and hurts and she instinctively puts her arm across her face. She can feel hard bare earth under her back and can't understand why; the last she remembered she was in the ship…

She groans as she rolls over onto her front and tries to pull her legs up under her so she can get herself upright. It takes her several minutes and once she does, she staggers uncontrollably, almost falling over again.

As she tries to steady herself she sees her ship.

It's still more or less in one piece but it's obvious it crash-landed and there's some significant damage by the looks of it.

"Crap!" she mutters to herself, and looks around at her environment. The sun is high in the sky and painfully bright and it's hot, very hot. But worse than that, worse even than her damaged ship, is what she sees across the sand dunes… a wraith hive ship.

"Crap, shit, bollocks and more crap!" she curses as she heads back inside her ship.

-oOo-

The wraith heard the ship crash and wonders if it would be safe to investigate. Perhaps he can top up his food stores – the craft looks to be of human design. Even if there are no humans left alive to feed on, there may be parts he could use to repair his own ship, or even just get a dart operational enough to get him off this queen-forsaken planet.

He decides it has to be worth the risk and heads off across the dunes towards the small ship.

-oOo-

Stephie is en route to the engineering deck when she looks through the observation hatch and sees the wraith lumbering across the dunes. She decides that repairing the ship can wait and makes a quick detour to the armory.

Stashing as much weaponry as she can into her pockets and belt, she tells herself the wraith will be much easier to deal with out in the open and hopes she gets out there before he reaches her ship and finds dark nooks and crannies to hide in.

She suddenly realises that she doesn't even know if any of her crew are still alive, but she doesn't have time for that now. Taking a long, deep, shuddering breath, she steels herself to go and face the wraith.

-oOo-

The wraith sees movement through a clear panel of the ship and puts on a spurt of speed, loping into the interior of the ship and mentally calculating what direction will take him to the still alive human he saw. As he goes he notes that, although badly damaged, this ship is repairable and could be his way off the planet.

-oOo-

Stephie heads for the open desert round the back of the ship, where she hopes she'll manage to fire a whole arsenal at the wraith and bring him down before he even sees her.

But standing in the hatchway she can no longer see the wraith; he must have seen her and will no doubt be on the ship by now. If she has any wounded crew left they'll be sitting ducks.

"Crap!" she mutters under her breath. She has no choice but to take the wraith on in an environment that suits him better than her. She turns and heads back into the dark interior of the ship, her heart pounding so hard she hopes he can't hear it.

-oOo-

She hears the wraith before she sees him… or at least she figures that the blood-curdling human screams are coming from her crew and that the wraith must be feeding.

"Bollocks!" she mutters, "that wraith is gonna leave me stranded here without any crew left if I don't find it and kill it."

She takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders and against all her instincts, heads in the direction of the screaming.

She gets there just as the screaming stops and just in time to catch the wraith as he drops the dried out husk of her chief engineer.

Stephie can't believe her luck that she has come out placed right behind the wraith and she aims both her weapons directly at the back of his head as he kneels over the corpse.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow your head off your shoulders right now!" she says, hoping the tremble in her voice isn't audible.

-oOo-

"Because you have no crew left and I am now probably your only way off this planet," the wraith says calmly without turning to look at her.

"Yeah, right," she says, "and the second I let my guard down you or your mates feed on me! I don't think so, Wraith!"

"As you see from the state of my hive I have been stranded alone on this planet for a very long time," the wraith says in a measured and even tone, turning and standing up as he speaks.

My God, he's huge! Stephie thinks, having to tilt her head back to look him in the eye.

The wraith continues, "I cannot leave this planet without you, and you cannot leave without me. It seems we find ourselves in the position of having to cooperate."

-oOo-

Stephie is starting to get very tired. She hasn't slept for several days as she and the enormous wraith work together on her ship's systems, slowly but surely getting at least the critical functions operational. It seems they have quite different skill sets and compliment each other well.

But a wraith is a wraith is a wraith and she doesn't trust him as far as she could throw him – and given his size that would not be very far! It's hard work trying to do delicate wiring when your hand is almost constantly hovering over your gun, she thinks.

And what exactly are they going to do if and when they get the ship space-worthy? Not for one minute does she think this wraith is going to do anything other than try to feed on her then take her ship.

She has to make sure he can't fly the damned thing without her!

-oOo-

"The test firings have been successful, I think we may be ready to take off very soon," the wraith says as he lumbers back onto the bridge from the bowels of the ship.

"We?" Stephie says, knowing that the wraith knows exactly what she's referring to.

"Working with you to get the ship operational and then taking the ship and feeding on you was my first thought," the wraith confesses openly. "But you have done a good job in making sure I cannot pilot this ship without you…"

This one's sharp, she thinks to herself and tries to damp down a sneaking feeling of admiration for him.

"So, it seems we still need each other, human," he finishes with a wry grin that almost makes him look friendly.

"Well, so long as that's the case," Stephie says, "You'd better get used to calling me Stephie instead of 'human', OK?" The huge wraith tilts his head and looks at her with a vaguely amused expression. "And those blonde dreads of yours remind me of someone I know called Greg, so that's what I'm gonna call you… they are blonde, aren't they? Under all that dirt, I mean…"

The huge wraith looks almost embarrassed as he looks down at his torn and dirty clothing, as if he has only just noticed his condition himself, and asks her, "Perhaps before we take off… is there somewhere I can… get clean…?"

Stephie shows him the way to the crew's quarters and points him in the direction of the showers.

"There are some clothes in that closet… he was the biggest member of my crew but I still don't know if you'll find anything that fits…"

Then she turns and leaves him to it. The look he gives her makes her wonder if he might have been about to say thanks, but she decides it would be a cold day in hell before any wraith thanked a human and she walks off without a backward glance.

-oOo-

About an hour later Greg walks onto the bridge and Stephie has to do a double take. Still in his own enormous boots, but he's managed to find a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt that fits pretty well. True, they're a little snug, but that just serves to emphasise his muscular build.

Stephie is horrified to find she's staring at him. He buffs up real well, she thinks to herself, feeling a blush rising from her neck. With his dreads now pure white and hanging wet and heavy down his back to his waist, she could almost fancy him… well, if he wasn't a wraith, that is!

-oOo-

They've been almost 24 hours in space when Greg walks onto the bridge with coffee and sandwiches. He hands the tray to Stephie, saying simply, "You must eat. It is all I could find in your food stores that was still edible."

She takes it from him a little suspiciously but gratefully; she hasn't eaten or slept for days and is starting to feel light-headed.

"What about you…?" she asks as she eats hungrily, knowing she has to bring the subject up.

"Fortunately for you… Stephie," he says the name clumsily, but she's amused to hear him use it, "I fed well shortly before we left. I will be fine for several weeks."

He squeezes himself into the pilot's chair and continues, "Neither do I require sleep, but you do…"

"Yeah, right and let you feed on me in my sleep!"

Greg sighs heavily. "I can keep the ship afloat while you sleep but I have already confessed that I cannot navigate it alone. It would be suicide for me to feed on you. I suggest you get some sleep before you fall over unconscious anyway."

Stephie knows the wraith is talking sense and grudgingly heads off to her cabin. She's asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow… the pillow with two stun guns stashed under it.

-oOo-

Stephie wakes with a start and, before either she or Greg is even aware of it, she has one gun pointed at Greg's head and the other at her own! Her sparkling green eyes flash with stubborn defiance and Greg feels the stirrings of something he hasn't felt for a very, very long time.

"What do you propose to do, human? Kill us both simultaneously?"

"Well if this doesn't kill you, it'll certainly kill me and at least then I'll have the satisfaction of knowing you'll starve to death!"

To her utter amazement the wraith throws his head back and roars with laughter! When it subsides, he finally says, "And I believe you would, too! You would make an excellent wraith!"

He steps back from her bunk and stands upright – not an easy task for him in the cramped cabin. "I only came to wake you because we are about to hit a meteor storm and I need you to help me on the bridge."

Stephie lowers her weapons and stashes them back under her pillow then follows Greg out of her room.

"You do not need to sleep with weapons under your head, Stephie," the wraith says quietly.

The way he says her name this time makes Stephie blush again.

-oOo-

Stephie starts to relax once it's clear they've made it through the meteor field and even leaves Greg to check and recalibrate the safety systems on his own.

Stephie looks him over while his attention is elsewhere. He's big and powerful and could've overwhelmed her with ease any time he wanted to. His thick, snow-white dreads hang loosely, framing a square-set face with incongruously friendly, soulful yellow eyes that light up like sunshine when he smiles…

She suddenly becomes aware that he's smiling broadly at her and shakes herself back to the here and now.

"Sorry," she says, "I was a million miles away there."

"Not as far away as that, I think," the wraith says cryptically.

Stephie yawns and stretches. "I'm still really sleepy," she says, "Would you mind if I just catch a nap here on the bridge?"

"I would feel honoured," Greg replies, "You have no weapons here."

Stephie isn't sure how to take that but nevertheless says, "I guess we have to trust each other, huh?"

"If I was going to eat you I would give you fair warning," he says grinning.

Stephie isn't sure how to take that comment either and gives him a sideways look before settling down in the comms chair. She's asleep within minutes.

-oOo-

Stephie drifts back to wakefulness, embarrassingly aware that she's been dreaming about the big wraith she's named Greg. She's just thinking that she hopes their fabled telepathy doesn't go as far as being able to read dreams, when she opens her eyes and sees Greg's face mere inches from hers.

He immediately stands upright when he sees she's wakened, looking decidedly embarrassed, if it were possible for a wraith to look embarrassed.

"What were you doing?" she asks him, even though she knows what he was doing. Greg doesn't answer and she starts to doubt what she was sure she saw. "You were touching my hair!"

"I was not," the wraith replies gruffly.

"You were so! You were stroking my hair!"

Greg instinctively snarls at her – and just as instinctively Stephie leaps from her chair and snarls right back at him, so close they're almost nose to nose.

Suddenly he grabs the back of her head in his huge hand and kisses her full on her lips! When he draws away again the astounded look on his face is almost funny and Stephie doesn't know which of the two of them is more surprised.

But the look lasts only a moment before they are kissing with a passion she never thought a wraith even knew about, let alone was capable of. They stagger across the floor with the force of it, crashing into the wall behind them.

Her own amazement doesn't stop her from pulling his t-shirt over his head, nor does it stop her from fumbling at the buckle of his belt. He only pulls away long enough to help her with it, toss the belt across the floor and pull her t-shirt off, throwing it to land on top of the belt, before he goes back to covering her face and neck and shoulders with warm, urgent kisses, which are soon traveling ever further down her body.

She helps him to wriggle her out of her jeans and bites her bottom lip hard as she feels the heat of his mouth move down her stomach and she discovers something else she didn't think wraith even knew about.

By the time he finally brings his head back up to hers and kisses her deeply she's already dizzy from wanting him and swings her legs up and around his waist, allowing him to pin her up against the wall.

His huge hands seem to be all over her and, even when she feels the slight tingle from his feeding hand wherever it touches her, her thoughts are on nothing else but letting herself drown in the smell and the taste and the heat of him.

When they're both finally spent he buries his head in her neck and growls deeply. Stephie wraps her arms around him as far as they'll go and holds him tight until his growls soften into something that sounds just like purring.

-oOo-

"I didn't think Wraith could do that… you know…" Stephie says, her head on Greg's chest rising and falling in time with his breathing as they lie together on the floor after their second lust-filled bout.

"There's a lot about Wraith you humans don't know," Greg says simply.

"I guess this has to be a one night stand, though…" Stephie sighs.

"Perhaps more than just one night," he says with a grin, but goes on seriously, "You know as well as I do it could never be… a long term arrangement… for lots of reasons," Greg says pragmatically.

Stephie swings herself upright and leans over him. Looking at him it hits her that within a few days she's never going to see this wraith again. Even though she's careful to make sure she doesn't sound it, she's deadly serious when she says, "Let's do it again – only this time I want to make sure I never forget it for as long as I live!"

"Again?" Greg says with exaggerated humor. But when he reaches up to pull her head down to his, his smile is like sunshine lighting up every little dark corner of her world.

-oOo-

For the next three days they just can't get enough of each other and Stephie feels like she's in seventh heaven… except for that quiet little voice in the back of her head that persistently reminds her that Greg is a wraith and sooner or later…

"I believe I've located an area of wraith-controlled territory," Greg says, cutting into her thoughts.

"Oh, no!" Stephie replies coming back to more like her normal, suspicious self. "If you think I'm piloting into wraith territory on my own you can think again!"

"I would not allow you to be harmed."

Stephie's mood softens again at the genuine sincerity in Greg's voice, but she knows what he's suggesting would be madness and eventually he agrees with her. Instead they locate a planet nearby with a star gate on it.

"I can drop you off and you can find your way back to a hive from there…" Stephie's voice is wistful and she has to look away as she speaks.

"Is something wrong?" Greg asks. Stephie doesn't answer and Greg can sense a deep sadness in her. "I will miss you too," he says and leaves the bridge before he says anything else he might later regret.

-oOo-

Stephie is completely enveloped in the big wraith's arms and inhales deeply, as if she wants to imprint her memory with the scent of him forever.

"We must take our separate paths now," he says to her softly and she knows it can't be any other way.

Sighing deeply she pushes herself away from him with her hands on his chest and looks up into his sparkling amber eyes.

"I want to say something but I don't know what to say," she whispers.

He kisses her one last time and says, "Words are not required."

Then he turns away from her and walks towards the star gate. Just as she thinks he's going to walk away from her without looking back, he turns and smiles at her. She mentally wraps herself up in the warmth of his smile and bites her lip so she won't cry as she watches him turn back and disappear through the gate.

-oOo-

Stephie can't shake the depression that's dogged her since she dropped Greg off at the star gate. She refuses to admit to herself that she might actually have feelings for a wraith. That is, until she spots a big male figure, sporting thick blonde dreadlocks, at the end of the dispatch corridor. She runs after him, shouting, "Hey! Greg!"

It is Greg who turns to look at her, but not the Greg she wanted to see. This Greg smiles when he sees her, but his smile doesn't light up the whole corridor like the other Greg's smile would have.

Bollocks, I'm actually mooning over a wraith, she chastises herself as she tries to make conversation with this man called Greg – but who is not the Greg with whom conversation flowed freely and easily, the Greg who made her laugh, the Greg who made her body hum like a tuning fork, the Greg she misses and longs to be with.

-oOo-

He looks deep into the woman's emerald green eyes, flashing with fear. He has a sudden, vivid flashback of another pair of eyes that same colour that flashed with something altogether more exciting than fear.

He lets the human go and snarls at her, "Run!"

The woman looks at him astounded and he hisses through his teeth, "Get away from here, run!"

The woman realises this wraith is setting her free and turns and flees.

Greg watches her for a second then sighs as he finally admits to himself that he actually has deep feelings for a human, a human he misses intolerably.

But as his memory paints Stephie's face around her defiant green eyes, he smiles with the knowledge that he'll carry her in his mind forever.

Then, beaming broadly, he turns and joins the rest of his crew to finish the day's culling.

The End.


End file.
